Where/how should I hide files so that border agents don't get to see them?

Question

A recent case in Canada (I live in Ontario) outlined how someone who refused to disclose their encryption key at the airport got a $500 fine for interfering with border agents. This case, and many others before it (both in Canada and other countries, especially the United States) outlines a giant legal problem: when border agents are given unlimited powers to search what is essentially a person's entire history, you can end up being in a lot more trouble than you had ever expected.

Now, if I were to be traveling to other countries and back, how could I protect files that I REALLY don't want ANYONE to see--but that I have easy access to? Is the only solution really to just open a cloud storage account, and then create an encrypted file with VeraCrypt with an extremely long and complex password under AES-256 encryption, then put whatever files I want on it? That way, only if I become a suspect in a crime, will a search warrant be granted, and even then, I still have the right to refuse to disclose the key to the police.

(Note to self: it is probably a good idea to not use email clients, because they store emails on computers and phones. And oh, don't remember the usernames on banking apps for smartphones. If you don't have this data on your computer/phone, the border guards will have far less information).

Answer 1

You didn't mention how large the files were that you needed to conceal, but there is a technique called steganography that allows you to encrypt and hide one file within another innocent looking file, such as an MP3, photo, or video. I use it quite often to send sensitive documents to other people via regular e-mail.

Just search for "Steganography Tools" to find a large selection of software available.

Answer 2

I am not sure if this works on other Operating Systems, but I know on macOS renaming a file with a period hides it because it fools the computer into thinking it is using an operating system file. There are ways to see the file, but unless they were REALLY searching your computer, they wouldn’t find it. There is a way to show and hide hidden files, though:

Terminal

Show: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Hide: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

EDIT:

After people not liking my first answer and my discovery of a much better solution, I would like to give a better recommendation.

Use MacPaw Hider 2, it is only $20 for the full license, and hides and encrypts files completely. I highly recommend it. And even better is that after hiding a file, the file does not appear in the directory. The only downside (besides the price) is that it technically does not hide the files, but moves them and makes it easy to encrypt/decrypt and move them back and forth.